Original ArticlesPerceived stigmatization among overweight African-American and caucasian adolescent girls
Section snippets
Study sample and research design
The study sample was drawn from five high schools within the St. Paul, Minnesota, public school district. This district was selected owing to its high percentages of youth from minority and low socioeconomic backgrounds. The study sample included 50 adolescent girls: 24 African-Americans and 26 Caucasians. The mean age of both the African-American and Caucasian girls was 16.1 years [standard deniation (SD) 1.2]. Adolescents were eligible for inclusion in the study if their body mass index (BMI)
Results
The results are presented by the themes which emerged under the categories of occurrence of stigmatizing/hurtful experiences, responses to hurtful experiences, and perceptions of discrimination: obesity versus race.
Discussion
The findings of this exploratory study indicate that overweight adolescent girls face stigmatization which may take a number of different forms. By far, the most frequently reported stigmatizing experiences were of a direct and intentional nature and included joking around at someone’s expense, name calling, and teasing. However, the girls also described hurtful situations of a less direct and intentional nature. Hurtful situations were most likely to occur in the home or school, with family
Acknowledgements
The authors express their gratitude to the study participants who have enlightened them through the sharing of their experiences. They are also grateful to Irene Alton, M.S., R.D., who was responsible for participant recruitment; to Jill Ohlson and Michelle Adamiak, who interviewed the participants and assisted in the content coding; and to Tanya Harris and RoseAnna Holiday, who assisted in the profile-based coding. This study was made possible through grants from the American Heart
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